How to start a business in the food industry

 

Food startups are invading supermarket shelves, street food markets and high-streets the length and breadth of the country.

Business plans from entrepreneurs looking to launch a food startup are also raiding the desks at Virgin StartUp, as it seems there’s a passionate person with a brilliant idea based around food applying for funding every week. With this in mind we decided to create the first ever Virgin StartUp Foodpreneur Festival, to celebrate and showcase the best new businesses that are coming through in this space.

As part of that, we also held three exclusive, tickets only workshops that saw some of the UK’s leaders in the food space come together to reveal how to start and then grow a business. The room was packed with innovative ideas and people with the power to make them a success. Such as Rosemary Price, head of buying at Ocado. Nick Birkett, co-founder of Burrito Bar chain, Poncho 8, and Justin Clarke CEO of Taste Festival. We left genuinely inspired and absolutely thrilled that we decided to place a camera at the back of the room to capture all of the golden advice and energy each session created. Now we want to share it all with you.

Below is the first workshop – how to start a food business.

Presented by Virgin StartUp business advisor and entrepreneur, Ben Keene, this workshop had a panel of:

 

Watch the next workshop: - how to create a standout brand in the food industry